Polar Afanc

The Middle Welsh avanc of Llyn Barfog is afanc in Modern Welsh, a word which is now used to mean "beaver". 

Similar to polar bears, Polar Afancs are a second species of afanc with white to yellow fur. They had dark brown skin, and it was improbable that two of them had any yellowish scutes going down their tails. They had blue eyes. In Welsh mythology, Polar Afanc was quite similar to a polar bear, sea lion, platypus, crocodile, and beaver that is the prehistoric semiterrestrial cetacean.

The Polar Afanc can dive up to 250–300 meters, but most of its dives are shallow in both freshwater and saltwater. Its top speed is approximately 35 km/h on water and 12 km/h on land. The Afanc can hold their breath for eight to ten minutes. Similar to sea lions, these crocodile-like cetaceans use their fore-flippers to propel themselves underwater, allowing them to make "flying" motions like missiles. They are also extremely nimble, with the ability to pivot and accelerate rapidly. According to their mouth, the Afanc's bite force is less than that of most crocodiles—more than 2500 psi. Afancs live in freshwater, but they also have salt glands in their eyes and a tongue that enable them to survive in saltwater, much like contemporary cetaceans.

Similar to Irrawaddy dolphins and archerfishes, the Polar Afanc had to discharge precise water jets to knock opponents off on land or in port. Afancs can aim precisely up to two to three meters distant and adjust for light refraction. Over time, young land whales learn from their parents to improve their aim. The Polar Afanc may ambush the enemy in glaciers and ice fields to bite them barely enough in four minutes. It also spits freezing saliva that causes sticks to stick to the opponent covered in quickly dried ice.

The Polar Afanc was said to prey upon anyone foolish enough to swim or fall into its lake. One story describes how it was rendered helpless by a maiden who let it sleep in her lap. This whale was carnivorous in nature, eating various things from deer, wolves, dormice, bears, lynxes, crossbills, macaques, aurochs, and even humans; it was considered unrelated to crocodiles.

The Polar Afanc played roles in the environment because these Welsh cetaceans controlled the numbers of prey and predators, made wallows and access points for other species, and moved nutrients between freshwater and saltwater ecosystems that were connected to rivers.

Reproduction

Afanc's reproduction is inferred from related species:

• They certainly laid birth on land or ice, not in water.

• Gestation similar to modern hoofed mammals (whales' closest land relatives).

• Afancs gave birth to a single well-developed calf.

The Afanc, particularly the dominant males, tended to be solitary and territorial. They spend a large portion of the day chilling or basking in water to regulate their body temperature. Afancs are primarily ambush predators, much like crocodiles rather than cetaceans. They are very clever for mammals, with the capacity for learning, long-term memory, easy enemy targeting, and complex social interactions during mating seasons. When the Polar Afanc approaches temperate and tropical regions, it can occasionally be passive.

Threats

• Bycatch in gillnets (leading cause of mortality).

• Habitat loss due to dam construction and river modification.

• Pollution—industrial waste, pesticides, heavy metals.

• Boat traffic and noise pollution.

• Overfishing, reducing their food supply.

• Climate change altering river flow and salinity.

• Climate change affecting breeding temperatures.

• Invasive predators (rats) at breeding areas.

Conservation Status

• IUCN Red List: Endangered (EN)

Conservation Efforts

• Establishing protected areas.

• Reducing or banning gillnets.

• Community-based conservation and monitoring.

• Rescue and rehabilitation programs.

• Habitat protection.

• Anti-poaching enforcement.

• Awareness campaigns against illegal pet trade.

Rarely seen in Scotland and the Orkney Islands, the Polar Afanc was indigenous to Norway, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Sweden. This species can travel to temperate swamps for nesting and reproducing near the North Pole, but it occasionally resided in the Arctic Ocean, where it originated.

• Movement Pattern: Nomadic

• Individual Type: Solo

• Population Trend: Stable

• Population: 15,000

• Locomotion: Amphibious

• Habitat: Polar; Tundra; Taiga; Montane Grasslands and Shrublands; Temperate Coniferous Forests; Temperate Broadleaf and Mixed Forests; Temperate Deciduous Forests, Temperate Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands; Subtropical Coniferous Forests; Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests; Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests; Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands; Stone Forest; Tropical Coniferous Forests; Tropical Moist Broadleaf Forests; Tropical Dry Broadleaf Forests; Tropical Grasslands; Tropical Savannas and Shrublands; Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands, and Scrub; Swamp; Bayous/Billabongs; Riparian; Wetland; Mangrove Forest; Cold Bamboo Forests; Tropical Bamboo Forests; Graveyard Vale; Mountain; Sky; Warm River; Cold River; Lukewarm River; Subterranean River; Warm Pond; Cold Pond; Aquifer; Warm Littoral; Cold Littoral; Warm Intertidal; Cold Intertidal.

• Earth: 

  • Extant (Resident): Canada; Greenland; Faroe Islands; Finland; Iceland; Norway; Sweden; United Kingdom; United States (Alaska)\

• Sawintir: 

  • Extant (Resident): Freezeburg; Norberg

Coming soon

From Asia to South America, Afanc originated from the ambulocetidae, ancient semiaquatic cetaceans; however, some inexplicable species on the way to Britain caused it to change into a crocodile-like species. The ecological niches exist because crocodiles were extinct in the Cretaceous to Eocene and are now nonexistent in the United Kingdom. In a biome resembling a swamp, Afanc was extremely repulsive. The 15th-century poet Lewys Glyn Cothi provided one of the first accounts of it, stating that it resided in Llyn Syfaddon, Powys.

According to one story, it was rendered helpless by a lady who allowed it to sleep on her lap; the cetacean was chained by the maiden's other villagers as it slept.  The damsel, in whose lap it still slept, was crushed by the cetacean's angry thrashings after it was awoken.  Ultimately, it was either murdered by Peredur (Percival, Peredur's name in Chrétien de Troyes' Arthurian cycle) or hauled away to the lake Cwm Ffynnon.

Coming soon

• Coming soon

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afanc

• https://cryptidz.fandom.com/wiki/Afanc

• https://www.deviantart.com/ognimdo2002/art/Polar-Afanc-904011906